Empress Market After Anti-Encroachment

Faiz Ali Khan
The Spiritual Sight
3 min readJul 23, 2020

Empress Market where Once Britisher held executions of around 30 Sepoys.

Empress Market in 1890

First i want to introduce you to The Empress Market which was built by Britishers who Ruled the subcontinent.

1884–1889: where east meets west, the one-stop shop for everything needed to run a household. it’s built on the spot where British colonizers used for public executions and a failed 1887 attempt at independence where freedom fighters were executed in a ruthless fashion.

“When it was uncovered to the residents, and knowing the significance of the spot, some tossed blossoms and keeping in mind that others lit candles at the area. The training picked up soon force and individuals began paying incessant visits to give proper respect to their political dissidents.”

Then to stop any attempts to monumentalize the areas the British were like lol let’s built a market.

A couple of years ago as you can see in the picture below the place become quite overcrowded of shops, traders and traffic and it become the encouragement of encroachment. although it is the famous market but it had no rules and regulation of how the shops should be made or given spaces for trading.

Empress Market had me charmed. When I ventured through its superb entryway, it appeared that time halted.

Inside of Empress Market

The environment inside is diminish, and everything is washed in a red tint — possibly from the roof that close off the searing sun, or maybe from the piles of fresh chillies lining the sides of the market. Everywhere, echoes of conversation, the shuffling of wares, sometimes a goat bleating in a distant corner. All of it, as if through a smokey filter.

Stalls at Empress Market

To the left, stalls stacked high with shoes, vegetables, bottles filled with strangely coloured liquids. Ahead, a corridor leading deep into the heart of the market. To one side, a passageway into a dull lobby, a sharp crude smell, glimmers of red meat swinging from metal poles.

Entrance of Empress Market

Things are moving surrounding you, individuals continue on ahead without focusing on you — ladies taking care of heavy sacks, boys doing what they feel enjoying, men hoping to get a sale. All these souls, hustling and hurrying, in a place where time stands still.

After Anti Encroachment Drive

The anti-encroachment drive, being conducted by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and other civic agencies in collaboration with law enforcement agencies demolished over 1,700 shops in a bid to return the landmark to its original structure.

Picture by Tribune

Now the place around Empress Market has been transformed into a greenish field. Just a couple of months back Sindh Govt had begun an estate drive with pupils of BVS Parsi High School and the outcome looks great.

Latest Pictures of Empress Market

Here have a view in video about latest conditions around the Empress market.

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Faiz Ali Khan
The Spiritual Sight

Doing ACCA, Accountant & entrepreneur—enthusiastic about reading, writing.